The Magistrates' Court has evolved from the Courts of summary jurisdiction of the nineteenth century, which were presided over by Resident Magistrates and Justices of the Peace. The Resident Magistrates on the pattern of the sixties, seventies, and eighties have disappeared, and the judicial functions of the Justices of the Peace have suffered practically the same fate in New Zealand, although the Justices of the Peace Act still has its place on the statute book. Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the rise of the Magistrates' Court Bench as a powerful influence in the community is the lowly, and sometimes suspect, inauguration from which it sprang. A legal profession and a public accustomed to the contemporary standards and dignity of the Magistrates' Courts of the Dominion, and also to the milder methods of current criticism of matters judicial, could hardly fail to be intrigued, if not actually appalled, by some of the practices and procedures in the sphere of justice when summary jurisdiction was almost entirely in the hands of Resident Magistrates. Recourse to the lower Courts was commonly regarded as a hazardous business, and there must have been many who could appreciate vividly what Voltaire meant when he said: “I was never ruined but twice; once when I lost a lawsuit and once when I won one”.